Pankaj Tripathi's colorful character is easily the best thing about Luka Chuppi. I had the pleasure of interviewing Pankaj for Wittyfeed at the press conference of Anarkali of Aarah where he first told me about his pivotal character in Newton. Until then as per the reports from film's Berlin premiere we were only hearing about Rajkummar Rao. When I stepped out of the theatre after watching Newton I told everyone that the film in many ways is a Pankaj Tripathi film but few listened to me. Soon I attended a TV discussion with Pankaj and director Amit V. Masurkar to discuss the film's prospects at the Oscars after it became India's official entry for the 2018 Oscars. Then when the National Awards were announced Pankaj Tripathi won a Special Mention Award which confirmed my claim about Newton being a Pankaj Tripathi film in many ways. When I watched him in Gangs of Wasseypur I knew that I was watching a very special talent. Today everyone more or less agrees that Pankaj Tripathi is the most versatile actor in the country right now.

Going back to that interview, I remember him telling me how his
role of Principal Srivastava in Nil Battey Sannata helped him in breaking the image of a bad man that
Wasseypur had created for him. He also told me that size of a role doesn’t
matter to him. He cited Masaan and told me how used his craft to make such a
small role memorable. Anyone who has seen Masaan would agree. He also told me
that his Bihari accent is actually an aseet when some may thing otherwise. “I
can play 100 Bihari characters and all will look different. That’s the kind of
range I can offer and I say this because of the faith I have in my craft. I am
able to sustain myself in the industry only because of the hard work that I
have put in over the years in honing my craft,” Tripathi had asserted.

Pankaj Tripathi as Rudra in Stree

Almost two years after doing that interview today I feel that
his hard work is now finally paying its dividend and that too in abundance. He has proven time and again that he
is capable of creating a memorable character out of literally nothing. Just think of
Stree and the kind of impact he left in such a short screen time. His ability to improvise
is absolutely mind-boggling. That’s the hallmark of a gifted actor. In a scene
where he was supposed to convey that the evil spirit is all-knowing he cheekily
improvised upon his dialogues to say that the spirit has access to everyone’s
AADHAR details. Small things like this can make a huge difference. Again in
Luka Chuppi he has a rather weak character to play but he makes it memorable
through sheer acting brilliance. A lesser actor wouldn’t have managed to leave
such a lasting image through the character of Babulal that he plays in the film.

Pankaj Tripathi as Babulal in Luka Chuppi

In order to understand Tripathi’s versatility one just need to
look at the vast array of characters that he has played over the last few years.
His most famous character in recent times has been Kaleen Bhaiya in Amazon Prime Original Mirzapur. But he is equally remembered for his cameo in Sacred
Games. His character called Guru Ji will have a much bigger role to play in the
upcoming seasons. If we looked at his films, other than Atma Singh in Newton,
there are so many memorable performances: Kehri Singh in Gugaon, Rangeela in
Anarkali of Aarah, Narottam Mishra in Bareilly Ki Barfi, Tripathi in Phamous,
among others. And the best part is that all characters are unique in their own
ways.

Pankaj Tripathi as Kaleen Bhaiya in Amazon Prime Original Mirzapur

I remember when Kaala had come out a senior film journalist was
commenting that Pankaj Tripathi looked uncharacteristically weak in the film.
In the same thread I commented that’s it is a testament to Pankaj Tripathi’s
acting brilliance that even a filmmaker from down south and that too of Pa. Ranjith’s pedigree chooses to cast him as a cop in a Rajinikanth film. There is
no other way to explain this. He may not be doing different things as an actor all the time but he is not afraid to do the routine things rather differently. With each new role Tripathi is giving us something
new, transcending the boundaries of positive and negative or arthouse and commercial,
and today he is well on course to tread on a path that not many actors in
Indian cinema have dared to walk.

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Murtaza Ali Khan is an independent film critic / journalist based out of New Delhi, India. He has been writing on cinema for over seven years. He runs the award-winning entertainment blog A Potpourri of Vestiges. He is also the Films Editor at the New York City-based publication Cafe Dissensus and regularly contributes to The Hindu and The Sunday Guardian. He was previously a columnist at Huff Post. He has also contributed to publications like DailyO, Newslaundry, The Quint, Dear Cinema, Desimartini and Jamuura Blog. He regularly appears as a guest panelist on the various television channels and is also associated with radio.